MALTON SURVIVE SECOND HALF SCARE
James Knock
The entrails of Storm Otto reached down as far as Malton and made playing conditions tricky where the visitors from Halifax were looking to add to their 19 points margin of victory in mid-November.
Malton with their backs to the football end kicked off proceedings and as Crossleyans progressed up the park the hosts lost two successive line outs on their own throw in.
The next piece of possession was hoisted high by the home no10 to test the wind but lack of distance gave the visitors an easy catch and on five minutes they were in the Malton red zone and a penalty kick to the corner was converted into a straight forward catch and drive for their no5 and a 5 point lead.
Minutes later Malton’s no 15 making his club debut fielded a high ball on the centre mark and his return kick was bang on the money for the chasing Triffitt to cannon the receiver into touch 15 metres out. Two phases later Crossleyans under pressure gave up a penalty under their posts and Bulmer duly claimed the points.
For the next 15 minutes play went back and forth with the use of high kicks to test both fullbacks with mixed results and any moves down the three quarters were snuffed out by heavy tackles from both sides.
In the 23rd minute after several attempts to cross the visitor’s line at close range prop Featherstone was sent on to anchor the scrum 5 metres out and the result was instantaneous with a penalty earned and the first referee’s warning of the game issued to the Crossleyan’s skipper. Converted by the reliable Bulmer a 6-5 lead was gained in the 27th minute.
Six minutes later Stephenson fielded a kick down his wing and running straight back in his uncompromising fashion was high tackled which earned the visiting no8 a yellow card. Bulmer placed the ball into touch metres out from the Crossleyans line and a perfect throw in from Bowman gave Malton the impetus to drive to the whitewash and 2 phases later the rapidly improving Barker dotted down for 7 points and a 13-5 lead.
Now it was the turn of the immaculately white sleeved Santiago Carreras lookalike Bulmer to display his wares!
Crossleyans on the attack 30 metres out from the home line dropped a ball in midfield which Bulmer deftly picked up and with the merest hint of a show to the lone defender turned him and backing himself beat any would be chasers to the visitor’s line and converting his try earned his team a comfortable halftime lead of 20 points to 5.
With a fine drizzle now adding to the equation for the next 20 minutes Malton were forced into an unplanned substitution with Bell who had been involved in an upright collision whilst carrying giving way to Bastow.
The opening 15 minutes of this half saw the home side guilty of committing too many basic errors and giving up unnecessary penalties together with the referee consulting the skipper at regular intervals inside their own sector of the pitch. On 55 minutes Crossleyans decided to convert a penalty having failed with a kick to the corner and a possible pushover moments earlier to take the score to 20-8.
The visitors now scenting blood started to capitalise on the home side’s indiscipline and were turning them over at will and with good ball and territory were starting to turn the screw.
However on 60 minutes Miller put Malton on the attack with a good run to the visitor’s 22 metre zone but again an injudicious error holding on after the tackle and preventing a turnover lost all the gained momentum.
In the 64th minute a mass brawl in front of the clubhouse, too far away for those of us in the stand to be able to pass comment, resulted in two yellow cards one to either side and a red card shown to a member of the home front row. The consequences were that the game as a palatable spectacle was now effectively over and the cards had not dissipated the heat since the referee felt the need to keep warning both skippers for the remaining 15 minutes.
Crossleyans now took advantage of their extra man and rumbled to the Malton line and following a scrum on the stand touch line 5 metres out a centimetre perfect kick pass found the winger on the other side for a 7 pointer, and at 20-15 game management was high on Malton’s priority list.
With 10 minutes left on the clock and the yellow carded players restored Malton took the game to the visitor’s line via a long kick down the line from Miller that stayed in play and bounced awkwardly for the defence. With the hard working Barker tracking play as a good flanker should he harassed the defending winger and tackled him into touch in the red zone. From the resulting line out Emms was the beneficiary of the catch and drive in the 75th minute and took the score to 25-15.
Malton now had 5 minutes left on the clock to manage and despite a late yellow card pulled from a well-stocked pocket and served on Bowman 3 minutes from time they closed out a fractious and ill-tempered encounter.
Next week a visit to bottom placed Bradford & Bingley is a chance to settle down and put today’s game firmly where it belongs and we can look forward to the remaining 5 league games and then with luck a decent cup run in April.
Malton: Connor Miller, Jacob Stephenson, Will Bell, Tom Foan, Eddie Brown, James Bulmer, Paul Angus, Nick Salisbury, Matt Bowman, Archie Armitage, Jamie Rounthwaite, Sean Emms, Thomas Barker, Tom Lowry, Sam Triffitt(c).
Subs(all used). Rob Featherstone, Nick Bastow, Elliott Briggs.
Scorers: Bulmer 1 try, 2 cons, 2 pens
Barker 1 try
Emms 1 try
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